Salt Pit

This article is about the secret CIA prison. For information on salt mines, see Salt mining.

Photograph of the Salt Pit taken by Trevor Paglen in 2006

34°34′36.48″N 69°17′25.80″E / 34.5768000°N 69.2905000°E / 34.5768000; 69.2905000 The Salt Pit and Cobalt were the code names of an isolated clandestine CIA black site prison and interrogation center outside Bagram Air Base[1] in Afghanistan.[2][3] It was located north of Kabul and was the location of a brick factory prior to the Afghanistan War. The CIA adapted it for extrajudicial detention.

In the winter of 2005, the Salt Pit became known to the general public because of two incidents. In 2011, the Miami Herald indicated that the Salt Pit was the same facility that Guantanamo Bay detainees referred to as the dark prison[4][5]—a fact subsequently confirmed in the CIA torture report.[6]

Beginning in April 2021, until the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, large sections of the Salt Pit were demolished by the departing personnel before the Taliban gained control of the site.[7][8]

  1. ^ "How the CIA Tried to 'Break' Prisoners in 'The Salt Pit'". NBC News. 10 December 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  2. ^ Mak, Tim (9 December 2014). "Inside the CIA's Sadistic Dungeon". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  3. ^ Harris, Shane; Mak, Tim (9 December 2014). "The Most Gruesome Moments in the CIA 'Torture Report'". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 11 May 2017. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference rosenberg was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Goldman, Adam (27 June 2015). "CIA photos of 'black sites' could complicate Guantánamo trials". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 28 June 2015. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vox1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Triebert, Christiaan; Willis, Haley (1 September 2021). "Covert Evacuations and Planned Demolitions: How the C.I.A. Left Its Last Base in Afghanistan". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  8. ^ Barnes, Julian E.; Fassihi, Farnaz (28 August 2021). "U.S. Blew Up a C.I.A. Post Used to Evacuate At-Risk Afghans". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 September 2021.